ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

Speen Church, close to Benham. When Elizabeth Craven moved back to Benham in Berkshire with her second husband, the retired Margrave of Anspach, they were determined to be good landowners and popular with the local community.  Christmas charity on a lavish scale was part of this. At Christmas 1802 they donated food, drink and warm clothing to no less than fifty-six poor families in the neighbourhood. The stockings must have been warm because "worsted" is a high quality woollen fabric. And apparently they did this every year. From the   The   Gentleman's   Monthly   Miscellany , Volume 1, Issues 1-5 1803 This must have been all the more welcome since the prolonged wars of the Napoleonic period had caused shortages, price inflation and hardship for the poor.  Such gifts were often distributed at the local church, providing an incentive for going out to a service in the cold. Benham is just outside the village of Speen near Newbury which is where where th...